{"id":1633,"date":"2020-05-05T13:02:02","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T13:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/?p=1633"},"modified":"2020-05-05T13:02:02","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T13:02:02","slug":"humanitarianism-hebron-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/humanitarianism-hebron-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Humanitarianism Hebron Style"},"content":{"rendered":"

In February this year, shortly before the third round of elections held within the space of 12 months, the Knesset\u2019s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, headed by Gabi Ashkenazi, discussed rendering the Tomb of the Patriarchs (known as \u201cThe Ibrahimi Mosque\u201d by Muslims) in Hebron accessible to persons with disabilities. This has followed pressure mounted by the settlers for two decades to make the site wheelchair accessible.<\/p>\n

Members of the committee, the ministers and the Civil Administration, all agreed that the issue should be advanced.\u00a0 MK Keti Shitrit (Likud) explained that this is a humanitarian, and not a political deliberation, or in other words that criticism of the idea is a mark of ill-will and inflexibility.\u00a0 Based on what the MKs and the Civil Administration have said, it could be understood that the villains of the story are the Palestinians who oppose accessibility arrangements that would serve both Jews and Muslims.<\/p>\n

The settlers\u2019 efforts were successful and yesterday Minister of Defense, Naftali Bennett, gave the project the greenlight after receiving the Prime Minister\u2019s consent over the weekend. The approval followed Attorney General Mandelblit\u2019s\u00a0determination<\/a>\u00a0two weeksthat there was no legal obstacle to expropriating the area for the purpose of constructing facilities designed to make the site accessible.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While the struggle is couched in terms of concern for the disabled and elderly who wish to pray or visit the Tomb of the Patriarchs\/Ibrahimi Mosque, there are indications that the struggle is more political in nature than it is humanitarian. And this political struggle has both international and local aspects.<\/p>\n

The plan to make the Tomb of the Patriarchs\/Ibrahimi Mosque accessible is not merely a matter of a minor building addition. The Civil Administration intends to put up a structure at the cost of at least 5.5 million NIS, including an lift, a sleeve to connect the lift shaft to the structure of the tomb and leveling the ground so as to enable worshippers to pass through. Additionally, the administration will need to expropriate land that at present belongs to the Islamic Waqf. In other words, in terms of the scope of the work, making the Tomb of the Patriarchs\/Ibrahimi Mosque accessible to persons with disabilities involves a significant change in the structure.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Tourism Ministry has already given \u00a0approximately a half million NIS to finance the planning of the lift. \u00a0The Ministry also committed to further invest two and a half million NIS for its construction.\u00a0 This is not the first time that the Minister of Tourism Yariv Levin has supported and promoted plans conceived by settlers.\u00a0 In recent years, Levin has allocated hundreds of millions of shekels in public funds for tourism and the development of heritage sites in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On the international level, the Tomb of the Patriarchs\/Ibrahimi Mosque is a UNESCO World Heritage Site\u00a0designated in 2017<\/a>, and is one of several such sites located in Palestine.\u00a0 On the same occasion the site was inscribed on the list of World Heritage Sites in Danger. Israel objected to the designation, but because it is a state party to the 1972 World Heritage Convention, it is obligated, among other things, to refrain from damaging any site on the list.\u00a0 It is not by coincidence that after Israel left UNESCO in 2019, it remained a signatory to the convention.\u00a0UNESCO has designated approximately ten sites in Israel, including Masada, Meggido and the White City in Tel Aviv as World Heritage sites.<\/p>\n

A further international aspect (which was marginalized in recent years), is the Oslo Accords that stipulated that the Hebron Municipality has responsibility for the Tomb of the Patriarchs\/Ibrahimi Mosque.\u00a0 In other words, according to the Oslo Accords, Israel recognized the importance of the Tomb of the Patriarchs\/Ibrahimi Mosque for Palestinians and even agreed that the site ought to be placed under Palestinian auspices.<\/p>\n

Going ahead with the plan, in effect, constitutes an annulment of the agreement that stipulates the Palestinians are responsible for the site and a reversal of the implicit recognition of the site as a Palestinian heritage site. Israel indeed has the power to trample the Palestinians and it does so in various ways on a daily basis, but the Tomb of the Patriarchs\/Ibrahimi Mosque is not just a holy site but also a symbol in the national struggle.\u00a0 Israel\u2019s decision to seize responsibility for the site from the Hebron municipality and the Palestinians sends a clear political message that Israel is reneging on agreements that were signed with the Palestinians in Hebron.\u00a0 Beyond the precedent that will enable the settlers in the future to demand additional changes at the Tomb of the Patriarchs\/Ibrahimi Mosque, this is also a precedent that could play out at other sites under the responsibility of the Islamic Waqf.<\/p>\n

Experience has shown us that what begins in Hebron percolates into other places including Jerusalem.\u00a0 It begins with a seemingly rational demand to benefit the disabled or the general public and evolves into a new status quo.\u00a0 The expected change in Hebron has not escaped the attention of members of the Temple movement and they will know how to present their demands to the government.\u00a0 If Israel can repudiate agreements with the Palestinians in Hebron and expropriate land from the Waqf, it would seem that accepting what appears to be the far more modest demands by the Temple movement to pray or to walk about the Temple Mount complex freely is not so far-fetched.<\/p>\n

In the reality of Hebron and East Jerusalem, a change involving only several meters at a historic or holy place is not free of political considerations and often it is part of long-term strategy.\u00a0 While it is necessary to tend to the needs and interests of persons with disabilities, the extremists who presume to speak on their behalf must be prevented from forging Israeli policy, even if it is only a matter of a lift and an access path.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In February this year, shortly before the third round of elections held within the space of 12 months, the Knesset\u2019s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, headed by Gabi Ashkenazi, discussed rendering the Tomb of the Patriarchs (known as \u201cThe Ibrahimi Mosque\u201d by Muslims) in Hebron accessible to persons with disabilities. This has followed pressure mounted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"class_list":["post-1633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-hebron","tag-holy-site","tag-settlers","tag-the-civil-administration"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHumanitarianism Hebron Style - Emek Shaveh<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/humanitarianism-hebron-style\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Humanitarianism Hebron Style - Emek Shaveh\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In February this year, shortly before the third round of elections held within the space of 12 months, the Knesset\u2019s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, headed by Gabi Ashkenazi, discussed rendering the Tomb of the Patriarchs (known as \u201cThe Ibrahimi Mosque\u201d by Muslims) in Hebron accessible to persons with disabilities. This has followed pressure mounted […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/humanitarianism-hebron-style\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Emek Shaveh\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-05T13:02:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Patriarch_tomb-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1757\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"manager\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"manager\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/humanitarianism-hebron-style\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/humanitarianism-hebron-style\/\",\"name\":\"Humanitarianism Hebron Style - Emek Shaveh\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/humanitarianism-hebron-style\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/humanitarianism-hebron-style\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Patriarch_tomb-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-05T13:02:02+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/6021f1b31987f98dde356582620fe60d\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/humanitarianism-hebron-style\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/humanitarianism-hebron-style\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/humanitarianism-hebron-style\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Patriarch_tomb-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Patriarch_tomb-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1757},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/humanitarianism-hebron-style\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Humanitarianism Hebron Style\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Emek Shaveh\",\"description\":\"Archeology in the shadow of the conflict\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/6021f1b31987f98dde356582620fe60d\",\"name\":\"manager\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c0c3df5a375b78fa6bfd32b87ef4b60a6c799d8d9bb9fe66577ac18942cdf770?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c0c3df5a375b78fa6bfd32b87ef4b60a6c799d8d9bb9fe66577ac18942cdf770?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"manager\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/author\/manager\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Humanitarianism Hebron Style - Emek Shaveh","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/humanitarianism-hebron-style\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Humanitarianism Hebron Style - Emek Shaveh","og_description":"In February this year, shortly before the third round of elections held within the space of 12 months, the Knesset\u2019s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, headed by Gabi Ashkenazi, discussed rendering the Tomb of the Patriarchs (known as \u201cThe Ibrahimi Mosque\u201d by Muslims) in Hebron accessible to persons with disabilities. This has followed pressure mounted […]","og_url":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/humanitarianism-hebron-style\/","og_site_name":"Emek Shaveh","article_published_time":"2020-05-05T13:02:02+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1757,"url":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Patriarch_tomb-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"manager","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"manager","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/humanitarianism-hebron-style\/","url":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/humanitarianism-hebron-style\/","name":"Humanitarianism Hebron Style - Emek Shaveh","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/humanitarianism-hebron-style\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/humanitarianism-hebron-style\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Patriarch_tomb-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2020-05-05T13:02:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/6021f1b31987f98dde356582620fe60d"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/humanitarianism-hebron-style\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/humanitarianism-hebron-style\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/humanitarianism-hebron-style\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Patriarch_tomb-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Patriarch_tomb-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1757},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/humanitarianism-hebron-style\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Humanitarianism Hebron Style"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/","name":"Emek Shaveh","description":"Archeology in the shadow of the conflict","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/6021f1b31987f98dde356582620fe60d","name":"manager","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c0c3df5a375b78fa6bfd32b87ef4b60a6c799d8d9bb9fe66577ac18942cdf770?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c0c3df5a375b78fa6bfd32b87ef4b60a6c799d8d9bb9fe66577ac18942cdf770?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"manager"},"url":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/author\/manager\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}